Pilot Proficiency

Pilots based on the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado know that the winter brings on the mountain wave. What they don’t expect in winter? For that wave to feed a storm of flames on the ground. On Thursday afternoon, a grass fire likely sparked by downed power lines around Marshall was stoked into […]

A pilot has to decide on the runway not to take off, and reflects on how things differed when he worked for an airline.

A faulty glideslope connection fools a pilot into following the instrument’s needle almost into the ground.

A seemingly easy flight from Charlottesville to Tampa proves that there’s no such thing as an easy flight.

Icing affects flight operations in many ways. Accordingly, we offer some thought-provoking reports from pilots who’ve been there. Little has been said about instrument malfunctions due to icing, and we discuss those in particular. Chilly Carburetors An instrument-rated Commercial pilot operating VFR experienced a sudden power interruption in his Cessna 150, followed by a surge […]

Alteration gives more information and a modern meaning for a common aviation abbreviation.

It must have been about two years after I received my private pilot license in Switzerland. At 28 years of age, I was happily married with two healthy boys, aged 2 and 4, and a promising banking career lying ahead. The world and future looked bright, and I was going to take the opportunity to fly when I […]

(July 2011) It was a silence I wasn’t used to. Actually, it wasn’t all that quiet what with the whirr of hummingbirds’ wings, the braying of burros and the cooing of doves. But what I wasn’t hearing was the sound of airplanes. For the two months I spent in Oaxaca, Mexico, last winter, the skies […]

An unusual pilot’s dramatic crash in the Sunshine State still has investigators wondering what happened many years later.

We taxied up in front of the line of four police cars as we were directed by ground control, instead of to the FBO where our friends were waiting. Martha said, “This is going to be interesting.” As we shut down the engine, we heard the bullhorn aimed at us and a voice: “Pilot, very […]